How precious is an hour of Meeting for Worship (or what ever you care to call it) each week?

At the Young Friends group in Wellington yesterday we talked about the meeting and what we valued about it. We also talked about how our physical behaviour contributed to our experience. In small groups we talked a little about all sorts of things including those of us who fidgeted through the whole hour, those who struggled to be on time each week, and those who loved the few times they felt really still and centred.

We wondered about whether we have any 'rules' of behaviour for Meeting, and if these are necessary. Do we need complete silence to gather together; is it the silence that's important, or the being together?Does it matter if people are coming in late for up to half an hour? Does it matter if people make a lot of noise with their clothes, sweet wrappers or books during Meeting?

We also wondered about whether it is good to have some people in the meeting whose task it is to specifically uphold the 'worship' or 'gatheredness'. Traditionally people have been asked to do this and these people were called Elders. Now Elders have a lot more 'jobs' in the Meeting, and this isn't their only role. Other people say 'everyone's an elder' so you don't need people who are concentrating on it specifically, as everybody should be.......

If we are going to only meet together once a week for an hour (or less), is it worth taking collective responsibility to be on time and share that whole time together, or are we too busy these days to make that sort of commitment? Is everyone only responsible for and accountable to, themselves, or is there collective resopnsibility and accountability? Is Meeting for Worship a free for all, with everything said in ministry or done during the hour OK, or are there some boundaries? (mostly unwritten...this is Quakers after all....!!!) Of course if you bring up any scenario, there will always be an exception in which it was alright, but can there be some general guidelines, or do we not need them? Do we value or even need any structure?

If we don't need any guidelines to help further our spiritual journey together, then do we need people to be elders. Are they an outdated modality and we have now moved on. Is tolerance the only thing we can agree on, so we don't ask for any other commonality between us for fear of scaring people away? Is tolerance the only tenet of Quakerism or is the Spirit and our collective as well as individual understanding of it important?

These are some of the areas we are exploring in Wellington Meeting as we try to find the right way forward for our meeting for worship and our elders.

About 20 people were at the SOYFA group last night, and I'm sure some of them will have additions to this posting. There were lots of interesting stories and ideas. Many of you weren't there - is this something worth exploring, or is it not relevant to us as YF's?

I'd be really interested to know your thoughts......

Marion

(PS there's an article on the history of elders in Quakers, which I can post here if people want me to....)